 Cover of theNew Oxford Style Manual | |
| Author | Horace Hart |
|---|---|
| Original title | Rules for compositors and readers at the University Press, Oxford |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Style guide |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication date | 1893–2014 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print / Digital |
| Pages | 464 (New Hart's Rules, 2nd edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0-19-957002-7 |
| LC Class | PN147 .N42 2014 |
| Website | Oxford Dictionaries(Subscription or UK public library membership required) |
Hart's Rules is the oldest continuously updatedstyle guide in theEnglish language, providing advice on topics such aspunctuation,citation, andtypography. Printer and biographerHorace Hart first issued the work in 1893 for the compositors and readers ofOxford University Press (OUP).[1] It has evolved through multiple editions to become one of the most influential works of its kind.[2]
The first edition ofRules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford appeared in 1893, as a privately circulated 24-page booklet, printed on small-format blue card and issued without charge to staff of the Oxford University Press.[3] Its compiler, Horace Hart (1840–1916), had been appointed Controller of the Press in 1883, tasked with modernizing what was then a struggling and bifurcated institution – divided between a commercially successful Bible Side and a faltering Learned Side.[2]
The originalRules had more modest aims than their later successors. They were intended to standardize typographic presentation across OUP's growing academic output, particularly as the workforce expanded and the influx of new staff made oral transmission of house norms insufficient.[1] TheRules drew upon Hart's earlier experience inLondon printing houses.[2] The preface to the fifteenth edition reveals that Hart began compiling examples as early as 1864.[2]
The booklet proved unexpectedly popular. Though originally intended for internal use, copies began circulating informally among authors and other printers. Hart published it formally in 1904, with the fifteenth edition, prompted by the discovery that it was being resold in London shops without his consent.[4] This marked the beginning ofHart's Rules as a commercial product. It soon came to be known and used well beyond Oxford, particularly by government departments and commercial printers.[2]
Over the following decades,Hart's Rules expanded dramatically in length, complexity, and scope. Successive Controllers of the Press and senior readers updated and annotated it, transforming it from a simple reference into an editorial codex. By the thirty-ninth edition (1983), it had grown to nearly 200 pages, and was arranged alphabetically by subject.[5]
The success ofHart's Rules owed much to the growing prestige of the Oxford University Press and its most significant scholarly project of the era, theOxford English Dictionary (OED). Hart worked closely with OED editors, especiallyJames Murray andHenry Bradley, who reviewed and sanctioned theRules, lending them significant academic authority.[2]
TheRules established conventions not just for spelling and punctuation, but for the formatting of references, use of capital letters, italicization, bibliographies, and foreign languages. Hart's careful balance between prescriptive rules and practical flexibility set a standard that many other presses followed. Its influence extended internationally: theRules were cited by printers of English around the world, and were emulated in the development of similar handbooks such asThe Chicago Manual of Style andMHRA Style Guide.[6]
In 2002, in lieu of a fortieth edition ofHart's Rules, Oxford University Press published an expanded successor asThe Oxford Guide to Style.[7] It also issued a volume combining this work withThe Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors[8] (the successor to theAuthors' and Printers' Dictionary byFrederick Howard Collins) asThe Oxford Style Manual.[9] This marked a shift to a larger reference format and a broader editorial remit, encompassing a fuller range of digital and academic practices.
In 2005, an abridged edition ofThe Oxford Guide to Style appeared under the titleNew Hart's Rules, returning to the compact handbook format that had defined the work for most of its life.[10] The most recent edition of this work appeared in 2014.[11]
The press renamed the combinedOxford Style Manual as theNew Oxford Style Manual to correspond withNew Hart's Rules and theNew Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, but the sequence of editions is continuous with that of the originalOxford Style Manual of 2003.[12][13]